We live on close to four wooded acres and our large pond is a very popular spot in this drought, for all manner of wildlife. To keep our garden from becoming the local salad bar for four-legged critters, husband has fashioned a very cheap cage to cover it. It seems to scare most of the wildlife and, when she was alive, Irritating little chihuahua would not go near it.

He found the pattern online but husband is not real knowledgeable about the internet and probably could not find it again. It’s made of chicken wire over a frame of flexible electrical conduit and it has its own screen door and a seat on the outside. We had it near the house but the Brown County Garden Club came out and built us a raised bed garden to fit in it. It weighs next to nothing for about seven of us to lift and put over the new garden.

Frankly, I see two more of these in our future. And, thank you so much to the kind people and companies who donated their time and supplies to make our garden successful.

It is always nice to have a new subscriber, but it is especially cool to find one from a far away land. I believe it helps to remind us just how similar we are. There are jobs we hate to do and then find out how worthwhile they were. There are times we do not realize how much we miss our relatives until we see them again.

If i cannot travel, at least I can read about other places and people. Sanchari is in Delhi, and blogging at, http://sancharib.wordpress.com/. If you scroll down her posts, you will see some great photos of the Jaisalmer Fort.

But, what really brought me home was her November post on cutting down the Mango tree which was just one year older than she is.

When I was growing up, my side yard had a large weeping willow tree. I could crawl under the branches and have an instant play house/fort/whatever I wanted. Many a day was spent eating lunch and playing under that tree. So, when mom and dad moved to a subdivision, they took a start with them and grew a new weeping willow in the backyard.

When I divorced, I moved back home again with my daughters. Super teacher daughter was in kindergarten and was delighted to live with a weeping willow in her very own backyard. It was she now who spent hours eating cookies or sandwiches and playing dolls under her grandparents tree. That is, until one day years later when lightning split the tree and it was taken down.

We had moved out a couple of years before this, but daughter always ran to visit her tree. We did not think to warn her as we got settled in for our visit, until she came back in the house in tears. Her beloved tree was gone.

She never ate mangoes from it but that tree was a wonderful memory for my daughter, as well as Sanchari’s Mango tree was for her.

After my father died, my mother was lost. As much as she loved her freedom, she was lonely without someone there to talk to. She had always wanted a Chihuahua and so another relative gave her half the money to purchase a Chihuahua puppy.

The puppy was adorable, and quiet. Very quiet. She did not bark for months until it got to the point that my mother encouraged her to bark. I do not know what the problem was that mom worried the dog could not bark. Granted, barking is the only way she is going to scare anything away (although I did read about three Chihuahua puppies cornering a coyote in a garage once), this dog is not going to do it alone. She has yet to catch a bird or a rabbit, both of which she used to chase. Never brought a deer home either, but mostly they turn and walk away from her.

Mother is in a senior’s apartment building now and, while she could have the dog with her, the dog has learned to bark. All company must sit before the dog will stop barking. (I guess a bid to bring them more to her eye level, although they would have to lay on the floor, on their stomach for that.) Mom let her dog stay with us, so she did not have complaints about the barking. Now, it is also because mom can no longer move quick enough to let the dog out (out the door, down the hall, down the elevator, through the lobby, and then out.)

Chihuahua puppy is now thirteen years old. She has always had a collapsing larynx, which requires her to stretch out and cough to open it; two slipped discs in her back; and an enlarged heart. It is the enlarged heart that is doing her in. Some nights she has me awake for a half hour as she coughs and coughs in an effort to get that larynx fully open. She is not gasping for air though.

When I took her to the vet a couple of weeks ago, he looked very grave and shook his head and told the nurse to put away the rabies shot. He gave her a steroid shot and new heart medicine and said her heart was failing. She threw up for two days and every day, I debated if today was the day to take her back in. I finally quit giving her the new heart medication and went back to the old (which he told me to do if she didn’t tolerate it.) and she was back to herself.

Some days she doesn’t eat, she laps up more water than she ever has, the stairs are tough on her old bones, some days she loves her chicken plate, some days it sits and drys up. Like most of us, who are getting up there, she has her good days and bad days. And, every day, we wonder if today is that day.

Then, she will ask to go out and she will sit in the sun and survey her domain and I’m thinking that as long as she can get joy in the world, and is not in pain, today is NOT the day. Let her enjoy another day in the sun.

Yesterday, I was petting her and noticed a lump. I’m not sure but her kidneys may be shutting down and one is enlarged. She is not in pain though, but I know that the day is closer, but not today.

After informing everyone on Facebook and Twitter that the Geminids meteor shower was at its peak yesterday, I went to bed and forgot all about it. Senior moment or Alzheimer’s? Of course we had not seen anything in the sky, but grey and snow for days, so I did not hold out a lot of hope to see them.

When we lived in Wyoming, we had seen everything in the sky. I remember getting out of the car every night and watching Haley’s comet. Every rainy season there were double and even triple rainbows in the sky. Yes, I know, Wyoming does not have rainy seasons. But, it does have triple rainbows. One night, I sat curled in a blanket on the front porch, and watched a lunar eclipse. Another night, all of us went in the back yard, with lawnchairs and sleeping bags, and watched a fantastic comet show. They sky’s in Wyoming always seemed to have a show. It was just when that show became fire and smoke that it was not fun. Three years of having our area burn around us and it just seemed like we were playing Russian Roulette

Last night, at 2:30 am, the dog decided she had to go out. I slipped on my boots and grabbed a sweater and stood waiting for her. She has had a problem with her back leg recently and it seems to be cramped up and frozen when she comes in. She is twelve years old this month and has had bone problems for years. I keep an eye on her for that and the fact that we have had a coyote walk down our driveway and a fox den in our meadow. She would make a tasty morsel for a coyote. Then, I remembered the Geminid meteor showers.

I began looking for them and soon short streaks were random in the sky. It was two hours after they were to be at their peak, darn! I think I made it all of fifteen minutes outside and then came in and watched from the window. I saw a streak every five minutes probably but it was enough to wake me up to all the things that we can still enjoy, sans money.

Sometimes, with all the neat technology upgrading almost daily, I can feel left behind. We have very basic cell phones and a cheap computer, but the really important things in life are still here for all of us. Where I live it includes seeing triplet fawns in our yard all summer, and coyotes and fox and blue herron in the pond.

And, to the readership of this blog, who has still checked in, even when I seemed to abandon you and even though I still do not use punctuation properly. Thanks to all.

To all Sci Fi fans out there. You better hope there is NO other intelligent life in space. If there is. If they find us. If they come down and begin coating our world with some guey substance so that our wildlife and our ecological system is all mucked up. Then they sit back on their backsides and wait until we are drowning in this gue.

Well, if that happens, do not expect a speedy response.

You will have to wait for a counter-attack on approval with the state agency, the coastal agency, the federal agency, and those same aliens, before our government does anything to protect us.

January was the month of cataract surgery. Now, if you want a rocking good time just try cataract surgery. Nothing to dull the edge. Hold your body stiff as a board because, as the doc talks about his latest trip or race or why there is the smell of burning electrical wire in the room, should you move your head a milimeter, just what could the consequences be??

I had no desire to find out. So, I found that every muscle in my body was rigid as I lay there watching water swirl in my right eye. Which was the eye that had some pain with the surgery. After having one eye done, the second eye was well, easier. No pain. But, I counted and confirmed that it did take more than 2 minutes to do the surgery.

That being dwelt on enough in this blog, I am counting off the days till my vision is totally clear. I am sure the steroid drops, still in one eye, are not helping my vision; which is said to be 20/20 now.

I did see the moon the other night. For the first time in my life, I looked up and saw the moon clearly without any glasses.

Now, that was cool!!!

I will be back to posting regularly in about two weeks, when I am done with eye drops and get a pair of reading glasses. Right now I am using this credit card sized plastic magnifier to read. Not cool!